Treasure Museum of the basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi
Coordinates: 43°04′28.31″N 12°36′21.11″E / 43.0745306°N 12.6058639°E
The Treasure museum of the basilica of Saint Francis contains a collection of sacred art that is on display in two halls found on the northern side of the Cloister of Pope Sixtus IV which is part of the Sacro Convento in Assisi, Italy. The entrance is found on the second level of the renaissance cloister behind the apse of the Basilica of Saint Francis, which houses the remains of St. Francis of Assisi. Since 1986 the Museum has also displayed a collection of works donated to the Conventual Franciscan Friars by the Secular Franciscan and American art critic, Frederick Mason Perkins, who died in Assisi in October 1955.
The Museum is part of the Associazione Musei Ecclesiastici Italiani (AMEI) and the network Museale Ecclesiastica Umbra (MEU).
In 1930, three years after the return of the Basilica and the Sacred Convent to the friars, the first exposition of the Treasure was put on display in the hall of Pope Pius XI at the western end of complex. The exhibition was designed to honor the works of the original patrimony which survived not only the ravages of time, but especially the plundering by Napoleon's troops (in 1798 nearly 390 kilograms of vestments in silver and other valuables were stolen). These works also survived the suppression of religious orders in 1866 during Italy's unification, when in any case the room in which the Treasure was kept, at the bottom of the bell tower, was already in a dilapidated state.
From documents found in the archives, especially from the old sacristy inventories (the first of which was taken in 1338), we can learn something about the evolution of the collection. But other sources also testify to the Treasure's development: the first biographies of St. Francis attest, for example, that in 1230 on occasion of the translation of Francis's body to the new church dedicated to him, Pope Gregory IX sent as a gift "a gold cross studded with precious stones in which is set a relic of the wood of the true cross. And with it decorative objects, liturgical objects and other objects to be used for serving at the altar, and extremely precious and magnificent sacred vestments."
...
Wikipedia